Spider-Man Fans Want Karl Urban for Kraven the Hunter After Keanu Reeves Reportedly Offered Role

Spider-Man fans want Karl Urban to play Kraven the Hunter after Sony reportedly offered the role [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

Spider-Man fans want Karl Urban to play Kraven the Hunter after Sony reportedly offered the role to Keanu Reeves, who would lead solo spin-off Kraven. After roles in the big-screen Star Trek reboot and Dredd, Urban joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Asgardian Skurge the Executioner in Thor: Ragnarok. Now starring as smug Supes-hater Billy Butcher in Amazon's mature superhero satire The Boys, Urban became a trending topic on Twitter amid word the Spider-Man studio officially submitted the offer to Reeves. According to the report, Sony has not reached a deal with the Matrix and John Wick franchise star.

Ahead of Venom, which launched the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters home to Tom Hardy's brain-slurping symbiote and Jared Leto's living vampire Morbius, THR reported Sony was developing solos for Spider-Man villains Kraven and Mysterio. The studio would cast Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio in 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home, the MCU-set sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming.

When The Equalizer writer Richard Wenk signed on to script Kraven in 2018, Wenk told DiscussingFilm the spin-off would "adhere very closely to the lore" of the Sinister Six villain who would "come face to face with Spider-Man."

Describing Kraven as a "very grounded character," Wenk said the studio was circling Kraven's Last Hunt, the character's most famous storyline, and was determining "whether this is the precursor to that movie or will include it."

"It's all in the mix, everybody is excited about it because everybody wants to make the right movie and the classic movie, and nobody's rushing to churn out some character movie because it's part of that world," Wenk said at the time. "It's nice to see everybody hunker down and say, 'What is the right movie to tell?' It's an origin story, obviously, so it'll be the first time people will see Kraven, and not the last, but it will be the first one. You just throw everything up on the wall and see the right movie to tell."

Spider-Man director Jon Watts, who returns for the untitled Homecoming 3, previously revealed he "would love" to pit Tom Holland's Spider-Man against Kraven the hunter. Black Panther filmmaker Ryan Coogler also wished to use the character before learning Sony, not Disney-owned Marvel Studios, holds Kraven's screen rights.

In August, Sony tapped A Most Violent Year and Triple Frontier director J.C. Chandor for Kraven. That same month, some suspected Kraven might be the villain of Homecoming 3 when it was reported Sony was on the hunt for a "Joel Kinnaman-type" actor for an undisclosed role.

Here's what Spider-Man fans are saying:

"Excellent Choice"

"Could Do Better"

"Spot On"

Wouldn't Want to Fight Him Neither

"Too Nice to Be Kraven"

"Action Packed Kraven"

"Right There"

"Perfect as Kraven"

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